Sunday, October 2, 2011

My Lawyer dumped me

I thought I would update the few readers who have followed my posts about my long and ongoing efforts to get on disability.

My lawyer dumped me. The next step after losing an administrative law hearing and having the appeal of that decision denied is taking the case to federal district court. My attorney was working solely on a 25% contingency, meaning that if he could not win the case for me he could not make any money. He did not believe I had a strong enough case where I had a decent likelihood of winning, so he decided not to file my case in federal court.

There is a two month deadline for filing in federal court and I could still do it if I can find a lawyer who will take my case on contingency. I don't know what the chances are realistically of being able to win in federal court or an appeal to the 9th circuit court or the likelihood of the U.S. supreme court hearing my case in that event. I am not sure it is worth pursuing any further. I plan to consult with some loved ones and someone else with some expertise in this issue and then decide.

I will probably keep readers posted on updates, if any, or write "an end of the line" post if I decide not to look for another attorney or I can't find one in time to file.

So it goes.

11 comments:

nerkul said...

Good result for anti-neurodiversity though, eh?

jonathan said...

huh?

Anonymous said...

Nerkul is under the false impression that if you are anti-ND, you are anti-autistic and that only the ND would support you getting disability. Its the argument of a moronic mind buried in dogma.

jonathan said...

@anonymous: Yes, I sort of suspected it was something like that, but I had no idea where Nerkul was coming from since he was so vague in phrasing it.

Actually, as far as ND's supporting persons getting disability, just the opposite is true, as you can google "Autistic Uncle Toms" and see that the autistic bitch from hell basically called all autistic persons who accept disability payments of any sort welfare bums and claimed that autistics who disagree with "self-advocates" are just doing so because they don't want to take responsibility for their lives and get jobs and just want to continue being on disability.

Bullet said...

Did your lawyer look at the extent to which your condition deteriorated since you left work? It's not how well you used to be able to do the job, it's how well you could cope NOW. Are there any additional factors, like anxiety, depression or OCD that are also contributing?

jonathan said...

@Bullet: My condition did not really deteriorate since I stopped working, and I did work with some success with the limitations. That was possibly a major factor in my lawyer deciding not to go further with my case. I also did not develop any additional anxiety or OCD either and have no documentation of such from a doctor.

Bullet said...

Well, I am pleased your condition did not deteriorate. But unfortunately what it possibly means is you did what I did, which was to drift along without realising why you were struggling with things. Sometimes you have to be removed from a situation to understand it. Eg it was my sons' school's open evening a couple of weeks back. At the time, during waiting, I was pacing, stimming (finger twisting and twirling constantly), unable to speak to anyone, unable to stop feeling anxious. If anyone had asked at the time, I couldn't have explained. It wasn't until afterwards that I could understand the situation I was in was very stressful for me. Same with work. I never understood why I could have a degree and yet be unable to cope with any job that wasn't either me working alone or in a very small office, doing very repetitive work. I didn't understand why I couldn't have a supervisors, or manager's job.
It is a shame that the SSDI is means tested based on how well they think you have worked in the past. Are there any other disability related benefits that you could apply for?

jonathan said...

@Bullet, no none, technically the SSDI thing is not over yet. Stay tuned for further developments or the denoument.

Adrianna said...

I'm sorry, truly, that you didn't win the appeal AND that you no longer have a lawyer. You know, I know so many people that get SSI for the most bullshit reasons. Sometimes they outright fake a disability and they get it. Why is it that people with actual legitimate disabilities have such a hard time with it?

jonathan said...

@Adriana: I wish i had the answer to that one.

Pituitary Gland said...

Thx for this info!